Agents, Crowds

Matt Saunders scuttles boundaries between media to make works that balance between the painted and the photographic.

Saunder begins with traditional materials oil paint on stretched linen – then uses these paintings as ‘negatives’ to expose photosensitive paper. Light passes through the various materials for a range of effects. Painted forms and the structure of the linen support are conflated while the vagaries of the darkroom play a role in forming the image. Grouping his subjects, which are drawn from films and photographs, into ‘Agents’ (perhaps actors, initiators or critical observers) and ‘Crowds’, Saunders poses a similar balance between individual portrait and historical scene. His installation for Sharjah is conceived as 'the irradiated trace of a picture gallery, or else a photographic standing for one that has gone missing.' April 2011 This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 10 Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation